The next morning, before Konoha's sky had fully brightened, thin mist shrouded the village.
Orochimaru was already standing outside the Hokage's office.
He wore his signature loose kimono, his long hair casually draped over his shoulders, and in his hand held the letter Tsunade had sent.
Tsunade, who had been away from the village for so long, had written a letter. It even inquired about her teacher's condition though only one line. He should show it to Sarutobi-sensei.
As for Jiraiya... he could wait. Given his current state, he probably wouldn't be able to handle such content well.
As for Tsunade's "repayment"... he had brought that too, but only the amount he had originally given Tsunade—about one-twentieth of those bonds.
As for the rest?
There was none.
After the Anbu announced his arrival, Orochimaru walked to the door and knocked several times in rhythm.
"Enter."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice still sounded exhausted. He had probably been working through the night again.
Orochimaru pushed the door open and entered.
The office was still thick with smoke, almost to the point of being choking. Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk. The ashtray beside the desk filled with documents was filled with burned tobacco ash. At his hand sat half a cup of tea that had long gone cold.
Seeing Orochimaru, he reluctantly pulled himself together. "So early... is something wrong?"
"Sensei."
Orochimaru bowed slightly, placed the letter on the desk, and pushed it toward Hiruzen Sarutobi, then walked to the window and opened it.
Ever since the end of the Second Shinobi World War, this had been one of the first things he did every time he came to the Hokage's office.
As he opened the window to ventilate, he explained, "Tsunade... there's news of her. This is the letter she sent back."
"...That child..."
Hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi first paused, then quickly picked up the letter and began reading it.
It was indeed Tsunade's handwriting. After confirming that, seeing only those two sparse lines of inquiry and the request to Orochimaru for materials on "reincarnation techniques," Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Tsunade still harbored resentment.
But how could she not have resentment?
In many ways, it was he, her teacher, who had wronged Tsunade not Tsunade who owed Konoha anything.
As for the middle part about repaying the money she had borrowed before leaving the village...
Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced sidelong at Orochimaru, who had just returned from the window. "I knew it. You helped her leave the village."
"There was no helping it. I couldn't very well cling to her and block her way like Jiraiya, could I?"
With only the two of them, master and student, in the office, Orochimaru spoke much more casually. "If I had done that, she probably would never have contacted any of us again."
"..."
After a long silence, Hiruzen Sarutobi could only exhale a weary sigh.
"And this."
Seeing that Sarutobi-sensei had no intention of bringing it up, Orochimaru took the initiative to pull out the portion of bearer bonds he had prepared and placed them on the desk.
"...She actually had the money to pay you back?"
"Didn't she say she opened a medical clinic? With Tsunade's skill, making money shouldn't be too difficult. As long as she can resist gambling..."
At this point, Orochimaru himself almost lost his composure.
Tsunade's gambling addiction, inherited from the First Hokage herself since childhood could it really be so easily broken?
"Since Tsunade is repaying you, you should keep it for yourself."
Hearing this joke, Hiruzen Sarutobi also smiled for the first time in a while. After a moment, he reached out and pushed the stack of bonds back to Orochimaru.
"Sensei, you should hold onto it for now. In case the village needs it somewhere—this little bit of money wouldn't even make a splash if thrown into my lab."
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and declined the offer.
Only, his words carried a hint of sarcasm.
This pittance—who was he trying to fob off?! And it was even "his own" money!
"...Very well. Very well."
Hiruzen Sarutobi could certainly hear the discontent in Orochimaru's words, but what else could he say?
He had been the one to approve the plan. He had been the one who couldn't provide the funding. He had been the one who ordered the research to stop halfway. And even Orochimaru himself had to supplement the funding when he couldn't go out on missions because of the research.
There was no logic in that!
Of course Orochimaru should be angry!
"Go back and rest for now. When funding is more plentiful later..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's tone was somewhat vague. After all, he had said such things countless times already, and currently lacked the confidence to say them again.
"I understand, Sensei."
Orochimaru bowed again, then withdrew from the office.
Not long after the office door closed, Hiruzen Sarutobi let out a long sigh. He picked up his pipe, refilled it with tobacco, lit it, and took a deep drag.
In the swirling smoke, his gaze was dim and unclear.
A few minutes later, he called the Anbu outside the door, telling him to summon several people for a meeting. Then he stood and led the way to the conference room.
Soon, the remaining three arrived one after another.
Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane, and Danzō Shimura.
They had once served alongside Hiruzen Sarutobi on the Second Hokage's guard detail. With Torifu Akimichi heading Konoha's defense division, and Kagami Uchiha having died years ago, these three now served as advisors, forming the village's highest decision-making body alongside him.
"Calling us here so early. What is it, Hiruzen?"
Koharu Utatane looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was puffing on his pipe, somewhat surprised. Although his smoking habit had grown worse, this was the first time he had smoked during such a meeting.
The latter didn't speak. He simply pushed Tsunade's letter across the table.
The three took turns reading it. Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane's expressions became somewhat complex.
"That child, Tsunade..." Koharu Utatane shook her head. "Still so willful."
She paused, not finishing her thought, but her meaning was clear.
With Sakumo Hatake stepping back from the frontlines due to injury, and Jiraiya nearly crippled, Konoha's top-tier combat strength was indeed stretched thin.
Orochimaru was strong, but he was only one person.
If Tsunade were still here, many things would be different.
"We can't blame her," Homura Mitokado said, pushing up his glasses, his tone relatively gentle. "After all... our decision back then indeed failed to consider her feelings."
He was naturally referring to the Hashirama cell experiment.
There had been considerable controversy over this matter among them. Ultimately, under Danzō Shimura's vigorous pushing and Hiruzen Sarutobi's tacit approval, the experiment had proceeded.
And Tsunade's departure was directly related to this matter at least, that was how they perceived it.
"Don't bring up the past," Danzō Shimura said coldly, cutting off the topic. "Rather than that, I'm more concerned about another matter."
He looked at the stack of bonds on the table. "This money, Hiruzen—how do you plan to handle it?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced at him, tapped his pipe, shook the spent ash into the ashtray, and dryly retorted, "What, you still plan to take money from young people?"
"The money should be for Orochimaru to handle himself. It was repaid to him by Tsunade. We have no authority to question it."
Danzō Shimura's expression darkened. He hadn't expected Hiruzen Sarutobi to be so blunt.
But looking at Hiruzen Sarutobi's equally displeased expression, he realized just how much this business with Tsunade was troubling his old teammate. It could only be said that Danzō Shimura had never taken a disciple in his life, and in this respect, he indeed could not empathize with Hiruzen Sarutobi as quickly.
Having figured out the crux of the issue, Danzō Shimura said no more.
His intelligence division had already taken too much funding. Orochimaru had even turned over the money he earned from missions outside the village for the construction of that division.
Since Orochimaru had given then, Danzō Shimura couldn't ask for it now that would be too embarrassing. Moreover, this money had nothing to do with "Konoha" itself; it was a private matter between Orochimaru and Tsunade.
And besides, funding should indeed go to Orochimaru now—not that Danzō Shimura didn't need money, but funding had to be rotated. Otherwise, even if Orochimaru said nothing, others would complain.
"I agree with that sentiment," Danzō Shimura said coldly. "Orochimaru's lab has been idle for a long time. I still have some surplus resources. Since money is now available, let him get things moving again."
"...You mean?"
Koharu Utatane recalled something.
Although Hiruzen Sarutobi had already approved Orochimaru's request to learn Impure World Reincarnation, the idea of using Impure World Reincarnation to summon Tobirama Senju back to guide experiments had been set aside.
"He previously applied for permission to study 'Impure World Reincarnation,' didn't he?"
Unsurprisingly, Danzō Shimura brought up this matter. It made Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado frown.
"Danzō, you..." Homura Mitokado hesitated.
"It can't be helped."
Danzō's expression remained grim, his voice gradually rising. "You should both be aware of Konoha's current situation."
"Sakumo Hatake is crippled. Jiraiya is maimed. Tsunade is gone. Orochimaru—ha."
Although the Second Shinobi World War had ended, the covert struggles between the major hidden villages had never ceased. Konoha's losses in this war had been severe, and a fault in top-tier combat strength was beginning to emerge.
Although Konoha's paper strength remained top-notch compared to other villages, one must not forget that Konoha was always the one being ganged up on in wars.
For Konoha to be stable, it couldn't just be "top-notch"—it had to be
"far superior."
"We need enough power..."
Another long silence.
Finally, Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly spoke. "So be it."
"Hiruzen! But that's our teacher—"
"I know." Hiruzen Sarutobi cut off Koharu Utatane's outcry. "I know what that means."
"We disciples are truly incompetent. We've brought the village to this state—can't even protect our teacher's legacy... Perhaps it's time to let our teacher see for himself what his unworthy students have done to the village he left behind."
"I hope our teacher... can forgive us, his incompetent disciples."
Smoke once again rose in the conference room, blending with light and dust.
At the same time, in the Land of Water.
After dawn had fully broken, Uchiha Hikari, once again disguised as that "middle-aged advisor," accompanied Sakaki Tatsuma to the daimyō's residence.
Today was the final cleanup. The thought that afterward she could go sightseeing with Hii Kōri made Hikari's mood very light.
Hii Kōri, meanwhile, had left much earlier.
Before the faint morning mist had fully dispersed, he had already reached the edge of the Land of Water, enjoying a brilliant sunrise—something hard to see in the Land of Fire or the Land of Wind—as the sea breeze blew.
The sparkling, vast sea surface was stained with a layer of bright color, reminding him of the view within his Domain Expansion.
To be honest, while the effect of his domain was indeed powerful, Domain Expansion itself wasn't very well-suited to a ninja's combat style. If he were to face the Ōtsutsuki clan later, the requirement of needing to encompass the enemy within the domain would be too great a flaw.
"Phew... I'll deal with that later."
But at this moment, Hii Kōri didn't plan to think about trivial matters like improving his domain.
He only intended to use this opportunity to accomplish what had been interrupted on the ship to the Land of Water by Hikari's seasickness—sea fishing.
Only this time, his target wasn't ordinary sea fish or other small fry, but a true behemoth.
The Three-Tails: Isobu.
Casually using Ucchuṣma's Hundred Transformations Sealed Method to change the nature of seawater and sand, transforming them into a one-person skiff, Hii Kōri leisurely sat in it. With a casual wave, a steady air flow blew from behind him, filling the skiff's sail.
The skiff smoothly sailed away from the shore, leaving a shallow wake. He took out his fishing gear, tossed a rod to Rashōmon, baited the hooks, and cast a few lines casually, as an appetizer before the main course.
Although Rashōmon didn't quite understand the pleasure of fishing, the skills he had inherited from Hii Kōri were nonetheless quite good.
By the time they reached the waters where the Three-Tails resided, the man and his shadow had already had a good haul. Over thirty various species of sea fish were jumping lively in the fish box behind them, including a few deep-sea blackthroat sea perch whose eyes were protruding due to the rapidly changing water pressure.
These were top-quality goods.
"It's been a while since I last went fishing, but my technique hasn't gotten rusty~ Hopefully, I'll catch another big one this time."
Hii Kōri tossed his latest catch into the box behind him, took the Hyakki Kūbō that Rashōmon handed him, fixed it onto the fishhook, and then cast the line with a mighty swing.
The nearly weightless, rounded cursed object sank to the bottom with a plop.
Hii Kōri's faintly released cursed energy conducts down the fishing line to the Hyakki Kūbō. The cursed object, which had never sealed itself off in the first place, was activated by this stimulus, diffusing the scent of curses in the seawater.
As time passed, the Three-Tails Isobu gradually sensed something amiss.
He had chosen to reside in waters far from the Land of Water partly because he had never been keen on getting involved with humans, and partly because he could feel the curse-laden atmosphere of the Land of Water.
But now—just a couple of days ago, he had felt that the curses around the Land of Water might be fading, and today someone had come directly above him to dump filthy water!
No matter how mild his temperament, the Three-Tails was still a tailed beast.
With someone provoking him on his own doorstep, he immediately grew agitated.
"!!!"
Three-Tails: Isobu, ascend!